As we all suspected, "Elementary" is no "Sherlock." But it is no screw-up, either.

In this updated version of ye olde detective yarn, Sherlock Holmes (a cagey Johnny Lee Miller) is a former Scotland Yard consultant fresh out of rehab and holed up in brownstone owned by his rich father. The loyal Watson has been re-imagined at Joan Watson (a moodily subdued Lucy Liu), a former surgeon forced by shadowy circumstances to become a professional addict-sitter.

What sounds like a gimmicky attempt to capitalize on the Holmes mania unleashed by the BBC's "Sherlock" turns out to be a perfectly respectable procedural that could eventually be something more. Think of it as a "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" reboot, with a frighteningly intuitive Englishman where the frighteningly intuitive Vincent D'Onofrio used to be.

In Thursday's debut, Holmes drags the reluctant Watson into a murder investigation while throwing out more-than-educated guesses about the skeletons in her closet. Watson gives as good as she gets, in a very low-key, Watson-ish sort of way. Aiden Quinn does a nice, wry job as Holmes' NYPD contact, and the case is solved through teamwork, thus establishing Watson as a more-than-capable partner in crime.

Miller is no Benedict Cumberbatch, the dreamy oddball who plays the BBC's Sherlock as a cool eccentric and possible sociopath. Miller's version has been softened and steamlined for network consumption, but it is a pleasure to have him back in prime time, and with his English accent, too. And Liu plays Watson with a bruised wariness that gives the standard procedural proceedings more depth than you'd expect.

With its standard-issue case and mostly invisible supporting cast, "Elementary" isn't in the same Tiffany league as "The Good Wife," but it is not the pandering travesty all of the hand-wringers were fretting about. And since the next "Sherlock" won't be turning up until God knows when, "Elementary" will scratch that itch without making you feel like a chump. Put that in ye olde pipe and smoke it.